


miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress

by soaringrachel



Category: Magic School Bus, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Genre: Bittersweet, Established Relationship, F/F, Gift Giving, Spaceships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 23:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10685163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soaringrachel/pseuds/soaringrachel
Summary: She's always liked that, since Val was in college and Carmen had her eye on the bell tower. Honestly, Val's not sure either of them have grown up much since then.





	miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress

Val would never tell her, but she hears the window slide open. It gives her time to let her hair down, so the red curls tumble over her shoulders by the time she feels a kiss on her left shoulderblade.

"I have school tomorrow, Carmen," she ways, without turning around. "Some of us have honest employment."

Val can see the picture behind her without looking--Carmen beautiful and out of place amid the detritus of book reports that need grading and shoebox dioramas. She'll have left her hat on but not her coat, and she'll say--

"Brought you something," says Carmen.

Val sighs and turns to face her, and there she is.

Carmen looks exactly as Val pictured, down to the damn hat shading her eyes, bizarre in the middle of Val's living room. She dangles something bright from one finger--an earring. It glints, teasing, and then Val realizes.

"It's real?" she asks, and Carmen grins that awful, perfect grin, pushes back Val's hair, and slips a shrunken Saturn V rocket into Val's left ear.

Val catches her wrist and and pulls her in, close enough to kiss but not quite there yet. "They'll be looking for you," she says.

"They always are," says Carmen.

"I'm not visiting you in prison," Val says, and kisses her.

She knows, she knows this is stupid, but Carmen's hands are already clenched in her hair, her stomach pressed up against Val's through Carmen's crisp blouse and Val's pink satin nightgown.

"Valerie," Carmen says, and Val rolls her eyes. "Pretentious bitch," she says, fondly, and pulls her back in, finally knocking the hat off.

"I've been thinking of you," Val confesses, when they part.

She's been thinking of Carmen quite a lot, actually. On last week's field trip the volcanic lava was almost the color of that damn hat and coat, almost the heat Val feels right now.

"Who hasn't been," Carmen says, but she falls back on Val's couch, stockinged feet hanging over the armrest. The heels are wearing thin.

"Aren't you going to ask about the other earring?" she says, as pleased with herself as any of Val's students when they've got some mischief in the works.

"Other girls bring diamonds," Val says.

Carmen laughs. "Oh, show me all these diamonds from all your other girls."

There are no other girls. "It isn't Rocks and Minerals until spring semester anyway," Val says.

"I'll remember," Carmen says. Val doesn't think she has other girls either.

"Anyway," Val says, coy now, "I don't have a present for you."

"Hmm," Carmen laughs, "I'm sure you can make it up to me, Valerie."

The couch is too small for two, but Val's always viewed that sort of thing as more of a suggestion. She climbs on top of Carmen, bites at her earlobe--earringless, Carmen never wears jewelry.

"Mmm," Carmen says--she's always liked that, since Val was in college and Carmen had her eye on the bell tower. Honestly, Val's not sure either of them have grown up much since then.

"All right," Carmen says, and reaches down to her coat, strewn on the floor where she must've dropped it as it came in. She reaches into the pocket and pulls out another earring--it's a tiny shape but Val recognizes the gold foil, the spider legs instantly--an Apollo lunar module.

"It's the one from Kennedy," Carmen says. "I thought it wasn't fair it never made it to the moon."

Val doesn't worry about Carmen, is the thing--she may get caught, but she's never caught for long, and if she ever gets in real trouble she's got a team to back her up. But Carmen does worry about Val, she knows, hurtling through space and time with nothing but a pack of ten-year-olds. The earrings are an extravagance, but they're also a blessing, and a wish--come home safe.

Val kisses Carmen as she puts in the other earring. She shouldn't keep them, maybe, these stolen treasures that belong to everyone, but it's exhilarating that they're just hers. It's exhilarating that Carmen is just hers.

"I'll make sure it gets there," she says, "Solar System is next week," and Carmen grins.

"I still won't visit you in prison, though," Val says, as she reaches under Carmen's skirt, rocket and lander bright at either side of her throat.

 

Later, as the sun comes up, Val sits while Carmen sleeps, naked under Carmen's red coat. The book reports still need grading, the next month of field trips needs planning, she needs to return an email from the principal. Instead she sits, stolen treasures weighing down her ears, and looks at Carmen.

Carmen's tanned, from being in the South, and in this light Val sees the red glints in her dark hair. Val wonders if those red glints are in Carmen's dossier, or if no one else sees her in the light enough to know about them. Val imagines taking Carmen out on the ocean, that lost island they went to for Marine Ecosystems, and seeing if her hair turns auburn after a week.

Val's moved six times since she and Carmen met, and Carmen always manages to find her, though to be fair Val's never hiding. She leaves the windows locked, the sliding door, though it's just because she knows Carmen likes a challenge, and Val likes setting one.

Carmen stirs, and Val comes over and kisses her hair, wakes her up. "Hello, thief," Carmen says, meaning the coat. 

"Hello, dreamer," Val says, meaning her.

Carmen puts on Val's robe and makes breakfast, eggs and peppers, while Val gets dressed for school. Carmen laughs in delight when she sees Val in stars and planets.

"You would come visit me in prison," Carmen says, "you'd bring the kids. It'd be educational."

Val wrinkles her nose. "Somehow we always run out of time for social studies," she says.

"You'd find the time," Carmen says.

"I'd be your cellmate," Val replies. "Child endangerment."

Carmen laughs. "If they haven't got you up on that yet..."

The food is delicious--Carmen's breakfasts always are. Carmen tells Val a story about a henchman she had to fire and Val tells Carmen a story about getting stranded at the top of a giant tree in Bolivia. It's seven-thirty and time to leave for school far too quickly.

Val kisses Carmen goodbye at the door, almost like Carmen is some old-timey wife seeing off her husband. Except when Val comes back, Carmen won't be there--she'll be off on the run again, or already caught and working on escape. And then, sometime soon, she'll be there again.

"Love you," Carmen says to Val. "Love you," Val says to Carmen, tossing her head so the lander catches the light.

She doesn't tie up her hair until she's behind the driver's seat, for the time being of a sleek little yellow convertible. She pats the dashboard in thanks for that; it's exactly what she needs. She blows another little kiss to Carmen; Carmen reaches a hand up and snatches it out of the air. But then Val can't put it off anymore; she's already going to be late getting the kids from the gym. She presses down on the gas, and Carmen stays in the doorway and watches her, buttoning her red coat as Val drives to school.

**Author's Note:**

> according to my research:  
> ms. frizzle's first name is established as valerie in "the magic school bus and the time of the dinosaurs."  
> the saturn v is the test rocket currently on display in huntsville, AL.  
> the lunar lander at kennedy was meant for a future apollo mission but never went.  
> in "carmen sandiego: math detective," carmen uses the prometheus rock to shrink the landmarks that VILE steals. i don't recall if she does the same in other games/shows but it's as good an answer to "why don't they just look for the woman carrying around a fucking mountain" as any.  
> title from "valerie," natch.


End file.
